Long ago and far away (Read 470 times)

I know, it’s really old news by now. Life has been too hectic since I got home, but I still wanted to write a report. The New York adventure started Friday morning with a 2 hour drive to Arlington to catch a cheap DC to NY bus ($25 each way--cheaper & easier than driving or airport hassle). Bus arrived at Penn Station 15 minutes early, and once I figured out where I was going, it only took about 15 minutes to get to the hotel. Once my brother Craig (yoderc) showed up, we made our way to the expo. He had a VIP pass because a friend of his has connections with the guy who runs the Chicago Marathon. When he told them he wasn’t going to use it because I didn’t have one, they gave me one too. Sweet! We headed out early Saturday morning to watch the Olympic trials, but not early enough to see the start. We first saw them around 6 miles, and were jogging backwards alongside the course after everyone had gone past, when we went past a runner laying on the pavement with several people attending to him. I was stunned to find out after the race that Ryan Shay had died. Since we didn’t know that during the race, we enjoyed jogging back and forth to see the runners twice on each of their 5 laps around Central Park. Ryan Hall is a stud; he really looked strong every time he went by. Sunday morning we started out a little later than we had planned due to some Daylight Savings Time confusion. (I’m not blaming anyone, but I knew what time it was.) This was just the first of a string of bad decisions that morning. We got off the subway train 20 blocks early instead of 8 blocks past our street when we realized it wasn’t going to be stopping there. Then we waited forever for another one that would get us closer. We ended up running down the street and turning the corner just in time to see the last VIP bus pulling away. So we walked some more, heading for a subway station that would take us to the ferry to the start. We saw a few marathoners about a block ahead and sort of followed, coming up to a long line of empty buses. As we got closer to the end of the line, a volunteer encouraged us to run, because the last bus was about to leave. We ended up being the last 2 people on the last bus to the start. Talk about cutting it close! Once we got to the start, the VIP tent was nice. Lots of good food, plenty warm, porta-potties with no lines. We sat around with Craig’s friends from Chicago until it was finally time to go to the start. Unfortunately, we were in the green start, which meant the lower level of the Verazano-Narrows Bridge. I didn’t follow the advice I received here to avoid the lower level, but we stayed away from the edge and fortunately never noticed any strange “rain” from the top. But we did notice a lot of people with bib numbers over 30,000 that we had to pass the first couple miles (we were in the 3000’s corral) and couldn’t figure out why they started in front of us (sorry, does that sound a little elitist-prickish?). We ran the first mile in 7:45 uphill on the bridge, then decided to stretch it out on the downhill 2nd mile (6:18). After that, we settled in and ran a lot of 6:48 to 6:52 miles, but probably used too much energy talking. By about mile 17, my hips and piriformis were tightening up and starting to hurt, and I knew it would be a struggle to maintain the 3 hour pace. There was a small hill between 17 and 18, and my frustration with the pain caused me to push the pace up the hill. When Craig reeled me back in, he asked what was up. I replied that I wasn’t feeling good, and he said “so you decided to punish yourself?” That was a pretty good assessment. I was able to keep running around 6:50/mile through mile 23, but I was definitely working a lot harder. In fact, as the pain kept increasing, I was getting light-headed and fighting off the feeling that I was going to pass out. Finally, going uphill around 23, I told Craig he needed to go on without me. He tried to play drill sergeant and yell at me “don’t make me do this alone”, but I finally convinced him I was doing all I could and he needed to leave me. As soon as he took off, I walked for the first time. How depressing. I managed to run again at a reasonably good pace after just a few seconds, and did the same thing several more times. I kept calculating my chances of finishing under 3 hours and thought I could still make it, but my brain wasn’t working much better than my body at this point so I wasn’t too sure of anything. I remember seeing “1 mile to go”, then 800 meters. From the 800 meters sign to the 400 meters sign felt like the longest 4 miles of the race. I stopped checking my watch and just focused on pushing to finish. I stopped my watch as I crossed the line, and after a few seconds got up the courage to look down. 2:59:54!!! Craig was there waiting for me and I just showed him my watch. Even though I dropped one and a half minutes behind him in the last 3 miles, we both did it! We made our way to the VIP recovery area, escorted by a very tall, very nice woman who almost had to carry me. The volunteers were great, bringing us food and drinks and whatever else we needed. It was the perfect setting for someone like me who hates the crowds. After sitting around awhile, changing clothes, meeting up with the gang from Chicago again, we decided it was time to start walking. We walked a lot, meeting up with my mom and aunt, who claimed they were at the front of the crowd screaming at me around a mile from the finish; I was totally oblivious. We ate a lot, then found a place for dessert and ate a lot more. It was a great weekend.

It's never too late for a report on the New York Marathon What an incredible finish! bas

Congratulations! And what a nice bonus on the VIP service.